DALLAS, TX.- No one knew how much it would sell for, because so few knew what it was – this Game & Watch demo cabinet made close to 40 years ago by an emerging Nintendo but marketed by a company that sold Star Trek action figures. It was for a game known by two inviting titles: Exterminator or Vermin, take your pick. As of Friday morning, when it went to auction in Dallas, it was the first of its kind ever to see public sale.

But when the hammer fell during the third session of Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Auction, which began Thursday and ends Sunday, the Nintendo-Mego Game & Watch Sales Demo cabinet sold for $28,800.

It had no opening estimate, only because no one knew how to price it. But the final sale price was a far cry from the $1,650 bid with which it opened the day.

"We expected this to be quite popular because it’s an early piece of Nintendo history – it even predates the Nintendo Entertainment System by about five years,” Heritage Auctions Video Games Consignment Director Valarie McLeckie said. "But, since it’s one of two Game & Watch demo cabinets known and the only one of this title, we left it up to the market to decide its value rather than provide an estimate. Needless to say, this was a pleasing auction result!”

It was the first to sell – and for all we know, it might be the last.

The Game & Watch Sales Demo, which still works perfectly, was used at the New York City Toy Fair in 1980, making big that which was meant to be played on commercially produced, calculator-sized electronic handheld Game & Watch toys to prospective buyers.

Mego distributed the very first series of these handheld toys on behalf of Nintendo in North America, which included just four titles: Ball, Fire, Flagman and the game alternatively known as Vermin and Exterminator.

Collectors refer to those Mego units as the "Silver line,” and the offered unit is the only known demo cabinet for Vermin. (Or Exterminator, as longtime fans of early-days Nintendo like to remind.)

There were other big hits at Friday’s auction, too.

For the time ever, Heritage Auctions brought to auction certified unopened early-days Atari games, including Mario Bros. [1988, Silver box] Wata 9.2 A+ Sealed Atari 2600 Atari 1983 USA. It sold for $9,000, given that it marks the first-ever appearance of Mario and Luigi on a home console.

Spider-Man Wata 9.8 A++ Sealed Atari 2600 Parker Brothers 1982 USA also sold for $9,000. Two things make this notable: It was the first videogame appearance of the Web-Slinger, and, it was the first game licensed by Marvel Comics.

The top lot in this auction was Super Mario Bros. [Hangtab, 3 Code, Mid-Production] Wata 8.0 A Sealed NES Nintendo 1985 USA, which sold for $40,200. Why? Because it’s sealed – and the very first copy we’ve ever seen that has what McLeckie calls "the alluring cardboard hangtab.”

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link [Rev-A, Round SOQ, Early Production] Wata 9.6 A+ Sealed NES Nintendo 1989 USA sold for $38,400.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! [Oval SOQ TM, Later Production] Wata 9.2 A Sealed 1987 USA and The Legend of Zelda [Oval SOQ TM, Later Production] Wata 9.4 A Sealed 1987 USA each sold for $33,600.

The Game & Watch console had been on McLeckie’s desk for several months in anticipation of this weekend’s auction. And now it’s gone to the highest bidder.

"While I will certainly miss seeing it in the office,” McLeckie said Friday afternoon, "I’m so glad that I got to be part of this sale, and I am ecstatic for the person who won it. It’s an amazing piece of Nintendo history.”